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There are limited non-invasive treatment options in the home environment for children with cerebral palsy (CP); thus, evaluating such treatment options is needed. We aimed to evaluate the effect of an innovative full-body suit approach for non-invasive surface electrical stimulation ES, the electro-dress Mollii (R). The full-body suit was primarily designed to reduce spasticity and improve motor function through the mechanism of reciprocal inhibition among children with CP. This study involved seven experimental single-case studies with an ABAB design. Seven studies were performed among children aged 4-17 years. The primary outcome (spasticity) was analyzed using graphed data with a visual inspection, and median values were analyzed for secondary outcomes (mobility, sitting, upper limb activity, sleep, pain, and adherence to treatment). The study protocol was recorded at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04078321). Seven studies were analyzed, and the treatment with the electro-dress had little or no impact on the outcomes: spasticity, mobility, sitting, upper limb activity, sleep, and pain, in any of these seven studies. In conclusion, multiple ES treatment with the innovative electro-dress Mollii (R) revealed little or no observable changes on primary outcome (spasticity) in any of the seven studies. Further the possible impact on motor function is recommended to be further evaluated in future studies

Introduction: Healthcare professionals’, especially physiotherapists’ role as promoters, preventers andrehabilitators play a significant role in prevention of falls. The purpose of this study was to gain knowledgeon the risk factors which are associated with fall-related injuries among community dwellingmen and women, based on Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) concepts.Patients and methods: The study includes 13,151 people who responded to a postal survey questionnairein 2017. The random sample consisted of men and women aged 70 years and older. Multivariate regressionmodels were used to explore associations between theory-based risk factors and fall-related injuries.Results: A total of 16% (1951 people) reported a fall-related injury during the past 12months. Formen, a total of seven risk factors were associated with fall-related injury: age, pain (neck/shoulder),incontinence, depression, help in daily living, education and sedentary behaviour. For women, a totalof nine risk factors were associated with fall-related injury: age, pain (extremities and neck/shoulder),tiredness, incontinence, appetite, economy, accommodation and participation in social activities.Conclusions: This study identified risk factors from all aspects of the SCT, serving as a clinically usefultheory in addition to traditional fall preventive actions. Gender differences should be considered whendesigning fall prevention strategies.

In 2004, Mälardalen University, Sweden, introduced a new undergraduate entry-level physiotherapy program. Program developers constructed the curriculum with behavioral medicine content that reflected the contemporary definition and values of the physiotherapy profession aligning it with current best practices, evidence, and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). The new curriculum conceptualized movement and function as modifiable behaviors in that they reflect behavioral contingencies, perceptions, beliefs, and lifestyle factors as well as pathophysiology and environmental factors. The purpose of this article is to describe how one university accordingly structured its new curriculum and its review. We describe the rationale for the curriculum's behavioral medicinecontent and competencies, its development and implementation, challenges, long-term outcomes, and its related research enterprise. We conclude that physiotherapy practiced by our graduates augments that taught in other programs based on accreditation reviews. With their expanded practice scope, graduates are systematically practicing within the constructs of health and function conceptualized within the ICF. Our intent in sharing our experience is to exemplify one university's initiative to best prepare students with respect to maximizing physiotherapy outcomes as well as establish a dialogue regarding minimum standards of behavioral medicine competencies in physiotherapy education and practice.

Objective: To study the long-term outcomes of two interventions targeting patients with sub-acute and persistent pain in a primary care physiotherapy setting. Design: A 10-year follow-up of a two-armed randomised controlled trial, initially including 97 participants. Interventions: Tailored behavioural medicine treatment, applied in a physiotherapy context (experimental condition), and exercise-based physiotherapy (control condition). Main measures: Pain-related disability was the primary outcome. The maximum pain intensity, pain control, fear of movement, sickness-related absence (register data) and perceived benefit and confidence in coping with future pain problems were the secondary outcomes. Results: Forty-three (44%) participants responded to the follow-up survey, 20 in the tailored behavioural medicine treatment group and 23 in the exercise-based physiotherapy group. The groups did not differ in terms of the change in the scores for the primary outcome (p=0.17) of pain-related disability between the experimental group (median: 2.5, Q1-Q3: -2.5-14.25), and the control group (median: 0, Q1-Q3: -5-6). Further, there were also no significant differences found for the secondary outcomes except for sickness-related absence, where the exercise-based physiotherapy group had more days of sickness-related absence three months before treatment (p= 0.02), and at the 10-year follow-up (p=0.03). Discussion: The beneficial effects favouring tailored behavioural medicine treatment that observed post-treatment and at the two-year follow-up were not maintained 10 years after treatment.

Background: Chronic musculoskeletal pain is a major health problem among older adults, particularly those who live alone and/or those who are dependent on formal care. Chronic pain is associated with mobility problems, falls, fear of falling, catastrophizing thoughts, and a lower quality of life. Research shows that physical therapy interventions based on behavioral medicine approaches are beneficial for middle-aged adults with chronic pain. However, there appears to be no previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) based on this theoretical framework that have examined the effect on older adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain who live alone at home and are dependent on formal care to manage their everyday lives. The aim of the planned study is to evaluate the effect of an individually tailored integrated physical therapy intervention based on a behavioral medicine approach compared with the effect of standard care. Methods/design: The planned study is an RCT that will include one intervention and one control group involving a total of 150 adults aged ≥75 years with chronic musculoskeletal pain who live alone at home and are dependent on formal care to manage their everyday lives. The intervention will involve a 12-week home-based individually tailored intervention that will be designed to enhance the participants’ ability to perform everyday activities by improving physical function and reducing pain-related disability and beliefs. The control group will be given standard care, including general advice about physical activity. The participants will be assessed at baseline and at 3 and 6 months after baseline. The primary outcome will be pain-related disability and physical performance. Discussion: The intervention, if effective, will have the potential to be the basis of the first evidence-based guidelines for physical therapists who work with older adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain. 

The study aimed to explore how home help service staff described their role in improving the abilities of older people, in particular, older women with chronic pain who are dependent on formal care, to perform everyday activities. Three focus group interviews were conducted, and a qualitative inductive thematic content analysis was used. The analysis resulted in one theme: struggling to improve the care recipients' opportunities for independence but being inhibited by complex environmental factors. By encouraging the care recipients to perform everyday activities, the staff perceived themselves to both maintain and improve their care recipients' independence and quality of life. An important goal for society and health care professionals is to improve older people's abilities to "age in place" and to enable them to age independently while maintaining their quality of life. A key resource is home help service staff, and this resource should be utilized in the best possible way.

Background: To be an older woman, live alone, have chronic pain, and be dependent on support are all factors that may have an impact on daily life. One way to promote ability in everyday activities in people with pain-related conditions is to use individualized, integrated behavioral medicine in physical therapy interventions. How this kind of intervention works for older women living alone at home, with chronic pain, and dependent on formal care to manage their everyday lives has not been studied. The aim was to explore the feasibility of a study and to evaluate an individually tailored integrated behavioral medicine in physical therapy intervention for the target group of women. Materials and methods: The study was a 12-week randomized trial with two-group design. Primary effect outcomes were pain-related disability and morale. Secondary effect outcomes focused on pain-related beliefs, self-efficacy for exercise, concerns of falling, physical activity, and physical performance. Results: In total, 23 women agreed to participate in the study and 16 women completed the intervention. The results showed that the behavioral medicine in physical therapy intervention was feasible. No effects were seen on the primary effect outcomes. The experimental intervention seemed to improve the level of physical activity and self-efficacy for exercise. Some of the participants in both groups perceived that they could manage their everyday life in a better way after participation in the study. Conclusion: Results from this study are encouraging, but the study procedure and interventions have to be refined and tested in a larger feasibility study to be able to evaluate the effects of these kinds of interventions on pain-related disability, pain-related beliefs, self-efficacy in everyday activities, and morale in the target group. Further research is also needed to refine and evaluate effects from individualized reminder routines, support to collect self-report data, safety procedures for balance training, and training of personnel to enhance self-efficacy.

Purpose: To investigate 1)how older women who are living alone perceive chronic musculoskeletal pain,Activities of Daily Living (ADL), physical activity, affective distress,pain-related beliefs, pain management, and rate pain-related disability andmorale,  2) the relationships betweendemographic variables, ADL, physical activity, affective distress, pain-relatedbeliefs, and pain management with pain-related disability and morale.Method: The study had across-sectional and correlational design. Sixty women, living alone with chronicpain and community support aged ≥65 years were included.Results: The women were on average 81 years old and had lived with pain forabout 21.5 years. They reported low scores of affective distress,catastrophizing thoughts and self-efficacy, high scores of fear of movement,low degrees of pain-related disability, and low levels of  morale. The multiple regression analysisshowed that only catastrophizing thoughts significantlyexplained the variation in pain-related disability, and both affective distress and catastrophizing thoughtssignificantly explained the variation in morale. Conclusion: These older women livingalone with chronic pain reported similar prevalence ofchronic pain and pain-related disability but lower morale when comparingthe results with similar studies about older people in the same age group orolder people who are in need of help to manage their daily life. The only variable that was independely associated to bothpain-related disability and morale was catastrophizing. Further researchshould focus on identifying catastrophizing thougts,and also on developing a rehabilitation program based on a biopsychosocialperspective with the goal to decrease catastrophizing, pain-relateddisability, and increase morale for this target group

Background. Psychosocial prognostic factors are important in the development of chronic pain, but treatment providers often lack knowledge and skills to assess and address these risk factors. Objective. The aim of this study was to examine the effects on outcomes (pain and disability) in patients of a course about psychosocial prognostic factors for physical therapists. Design. This study was a randomized, controlled trial. Setting. The setting was primary care practice. Participants. Forty-two primary care physical therapists attended an 8-day university course (over 8 weeks) aimed at identifying and addressing psychosocial risk factors. Intervention. The physical therapists were randomly assigned to either the course or a waiting list. They treated consecutive patients with acute and subacute musculoskeletal pain both before and after the course. Measurements. We measured physical therapists' attitudes and beliefs about psychosocial factors, knowledge, and skills before and after the course. We measured patients' pain, disability, catastrophizing, and mood at the start of treatment and at a 6-month follow-up. Methods. The physical therapists were randomly assigned to either the course or a waiting list. They treated consecutive patients with acute and subacute musculoskeletal pain both before and after the course. Results. Pain and disability outcomes in all patients of physical therapists who had participated in the course or in patients at risk of developing long-term disability who had higher levels of catastrophizing or depression were not significantly different from those outcomes in patients of physical therapists who had not participated in the course. Pain and disability outcomes in patients with a low risk of developing long-term disability-and pain outcomes in patients with a high risk of developing long-term disability-were not dependent upon whether the attitudes and beliefs of their physical therapists changed during the course. However, disability outcomes in patients with a high risk of developing long-term disability may have been influenced by whether the attitudes and beliefs of their physical therapists changed. Limitations. A limitation of this study was that actual practice behavior was not measured. Conclusions. An 8-day university course for physical therapists did not improve outcomes in a group of patients as a whole or in patients with a risk of developing long-term disability. However, patients who had a risk of developing long-term disability and had higher levels of catastrophizing or depression may have shown greater reductions in disability if the attitudes and beliefs of their physical therapists changed during the course.

Background: Prospective studies on high-risk populations, such as subgroups of health care staff, are limited, especially prospective studies among staff not on sick-leave. This paper is a report of a longitudinal study conducted to describe and compare the importance and consistency of life domains among registered nurses (RNs) working in a Swedish hospital and evaluate a model based on the consistency of valued life domains for prediction of pain, disability and sick leave.Method: Importance and consistency ratings of life values, in 9 domains, were collected during 2003 and 2006 from 196 RNs using the Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ). Logistic regression analyses were used for prediction of pain, disability and sick leave at the three-year follow-up. The predictors family relations, marriage couples/intimate relations, parenting, friends/social life, work, education, leisure time, psychological well-being, and physical self-care were used at baseline.Results: RNs rated life values regarding parenting as most important and with the highest consistency both at baseline and at follow-up. No significant differences were found between RNs' ratings of importance and consistency over the three-year period, except for friends/social relations that revealed a significant decrease in importance at follow-up. The explanatory models for pain, disability and sick leave significantly predicted pain and disability at follow-up. The odds of having pain were significantly increased by one consistency rating (psychological well-being), while the odds were significantly decreased by physical self-care. In the model predicting disability, consistency in psychological well-being and education significantly increased the odds of being disabled, while consistency in physical self-care significantly decreased the odds.Conclusion: The results suggest that there might be a link between intra-individual factors reflecting different aspects of appraised life values and musculoskeletal pain (MSP).